Monday, August 23, 2021

Spotlight on M. C. Bunn, author of Where Your Treasure Is

 


Feisty, independent heiress Winifred de la Coeur has never wanted to live according to someone else’s rules—but even she didn’t plan on falling in love with a bank robber.

Winifred is a wealthy, nontraditional beauty who bridles against the strict rules and conventions of Victorian London society. When she gets caught up in the chaos of a bungled bank robbery, she is thrust unwillingly into an encounter with Court Furor, a reluctant getaway driver and prizefighter.  In the bitter cold of a bleak London winter, sparks fly.

Winifred and Court are two misfits in their own circumscribed worlds—the fashionable beau monde with its rigorously upheld rules, and the gritty demimonde, where survival often means life-or-death choices.

Despite their conflicting backgrounds, they fall desperately in love while acknowledging the impossibility of remaining together. Returning to their own worlds, they try to make peace with their lives until a moment of unrestrained honesty and defiance threatens to topple the deceptions that they have carefully constructed to protect each other.

A story of the overlapping entanglements of Victorian London’s social classes, the strength of family bonds and true friendship, and the power of love to heal a broken spirit.

 


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M.C. Bunn

 

FUN FACTS

(Stuff you may or may not already know!)

 

This is so difficult! I’d much rather write about my characters because I’m a stay-at-home sort of person (O.K., I’m a hermit!), but I’ll try.

 

I’m the singer in the indie band Mister Felix http://www.misterfelix.com/index.html. We perform lots of oldies and covers, but I write our originals, such as the ones featured on the website and its videos. The guitarist, Robert, and I have had a musical partnership for years. I also sing with another group and am learning to play mountain dulcimer for it. 

 

My last couple of years in college, I took as many drama classes as I could. It was a wonderful experience working in the costume shop and as a dresser, being in an improv troop, and acting in the student-run “lab theater.” My specialties were walk-on roles. I particularly enjoyed playing a werewolf. I was also cast as Carter in Uncommon Women.

M. C. really stands for More Caffeine. I love coffee, though it’s getting so it doesn’t love me! I need to get a REALLY big cup so that I can truthfully say I’ve cut back to one a day. Actually, my last job was working in a friend’s coffee mug factory. I wrote a jingle for him, got to run a drill press, and did some welding.

My favorite sport is walking my dog. After an hour of it, I can sit down with him without guilt (and that extra big cup of coffee). Actually, even before our four-footed personal trainer came into our lives, I tried to walk every day, not only for health but because it’s when I ruminate about whatever I’m writing. It’s a lovely way to slow down and watch the seasons change up close.

Ian McKellen once stood on my hair. He was doing a one-man Shakespeare show and asked for volunteers to join him onstage. It must have been for a battle scene because he whispered to all of us to “drop dead” at his signal. When we did, my barrette popped open and my hair spilled out. He stepped backward and pinned it with his heel. Twist, twist—he stepped backward, closer! I must’ve tugged his pants leg or waved desperately because the audience laughed. My comedic debut!

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 M. C. Bunn

M. C. Bunn grew up in a house full of books, history, and music. “Daddy was a master storyteller. The past was another world, but one that seemed familiar because of him. He read aloud at the table, classics or whatever historical subject interested him. His idea of bedtime stories were passages from Dickens, Twain, and Stevenson. Mama told me I could write whatever I wanted. She put a dictionary in my hands and let me use her typewriter, or watch I, Claudius and Shoulder to Shoulder when they first aired on Masterpiece Theatre. She was the realist. He was the romantic. They were a great team.”

Where Your Treasure Is, a novel set in late-Victorian London and Norfolk came together after the sudden death of the author’s father. “I’d been teaching high school English for over a decade and had spent the summer cleaning my parents’ house and their offices. It was August, time for classes to begin. The characters emerged out of nowhere, sort of like they knew I needed them. They took over.”

 

She had worked on a novella as part of her master’s degree in English years before but set it aside, along with many other stories. “I was also writing songs for the band I’m in and had done a libretto for a sacred piece. All of that was completely different from Where Your Treasure Is. Before her health declined, my mother heard Treasure’s first draft and encouraged me to return to prose. The novel is a nod to all the wonderful books my father read to us, the old movies we stayed up to watch, a thank you to my parents, especially Mama for reminding me that nothing is wasted. Dreams don’t have to die. Neither does love.” 

 

When M. C. Bunn is not writing, she’s researching or reading. Her idea of a well-appointed room includes multiple bookshelves, a full pot of coffee, and a place to lie down with a big, old book. To further feed her soul, she and her husband take long walks with their dog, Emeril in North Carolina’s woods, or she makes music with friends.

 

“I try to remember to look up at the sky and take some time each day to be thankful.”

 Social Media Links

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Friday, August 20, 2021

The Briton and the Dane: Legacy by Mary Ann Bernal - hardcover edition now available

 


…Filled with intrigue, betrayal, hate, and love, The Briton and the Dane: Legacy by Mary Ann Bernal is as breathtakingly poetic, as it is sweepingly elegant in its brilliance. This story left me so breathless with anticipation that I could not turn the pages fast enough. I was utterly enthralled from start to finish.

I simply adored this book. So much happens that at times it left my head spinning! There is a cast of very colourful and memorable characters. Some of these characters I have come to adore over the course of the series, others not so much! One thing that can never be said is that Bernal’s characters are dull. They are so unpredictable, and many times during the course of this novel, I found myself shaking my head and whispering, “What are you doing? No. Don’t do that! Please… No, you did it!” The impulsiveness of the characters and the fact that their hearts and not their heads rule many, made their stories not only believable but wonderfully human in the telling.

Like before, with the first two books in this fabulous series, Bernal has captured the very essence of the era in which she writes about. Her compelling narrative and her decision to show every possible side to the story made this book not only exceedingly engaging, but it is also one that was next to impossible to put down.

What I liked about this series the most was the way Bernal has portrayed women. The majority of authors who write their fictional stories about Alfred the Great and this era in history concentrate their efforts on the men of this time, and the women take a more sedate secondary role. Not so with Bernal’s books. The women are centre stage, which I found exceedingly refreshing.

As with the first two books in the series, I was drawn to Elizabeth. She is such a warm and wonderful woman who will do anything for her family, even if it is sometimes a little misguided. Another character who I particularly enjoyed reading about was Dalla. It has been two years since Dalla’s husband, Rigr, was killed, but her love for him has not diminished. I had high hopes that she would find happiness with Loki, but Bernal was not about to make things easy for her!

 As I have already touched upon, the historical detailing of this book has to be commended. Bernal has chosen to paint a vast canvas in which to set her story. Within this canvas, Bernal allows us to walk with Kings and members of the clergy— including the Pope, Norseman, and Saxons. Rich or poor, you can discover them all between these pages. This rich tapestry of life gave this story an incredible sense of depth. The depiction of the sea battle was particularly well-drawn. This was undoubtedly a violent time, and Bernal has not shied away from the brutalities of the era, but at the same time, she has an author’s intuitive understanding of when to stop and change the scene, therefore, giving her readers a moment to catch their breath.

 As with the other books in this series, Bernal has presented her readers with a vast and wondrous cast of characters and, for this reason alone, The Briton and the Dane: Legacy is not, in my opinion, a standalone read. This series thrives on political intrigue and complicated sub-plots, so it is imperative that you start this fantastic reading adventure with Book 1.

Having read all of the books in The Briton and the Dane series, I now feel slightly bereft that this wonderful story has come to an end. I have thoroughly enjoyed not only Bernal’s interpretation of Alfred the Great but also of the women who are so often overshadowed by the men in this era. I look forward to reading more books by this author in the future. Kudos, Ms Bernal.  

I Highly Recommend.
 
Review by Mary Anne Yarde.
The Coffee Pot Book Club.

 


 


Thursday, August 19, 2021

Spotlight on Clare Marchant, author of The Queen’s Spy

 


1584: Elizabeth I rules England. But a dangerous plot is brewing in court, and Mary Queen of Scots will stop at nothing to take her cousin’s throne.

There’s only one thing standing in her way: Tom, the queen’s trusted apothecary, who makes the perfect silent spy…

2021: Travelling the globe in her campervan, Mathilde has never belonged anywhere. So when she receives news of an inheritance, she is shocked to discover she has a family in England.

Just like Mathilde, the medieval hall she inherits conceals secrets, and she quickly makes a haunting discovery. Can she unravel the truth about what happened there all those years ago? And will she finally find a place to call home?

 


Buy Links:

Amazon UK    Amazon US   Amazon CA   Amazon AU   Barnes and Noble   Waterstones

Kobo   iBooks   Audio

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 Clare Marchant

Fun Facts

(Stuff you may or may not already know!)

I studied European medieval cultural history for my degree – no surprises there! In fact, I did it through the Open University here in the UK before we had the internet so all my work had to be sent by post. Because of family constraints at the time, I couldn’t go to any lectures so I would just emerge once a year at exam time and then disappear again! Later I did an MA in feminist art history which was fascinating, I have a great love of art and especially the Impressionists and Pre-Raphaelites. Because I love studying and viewing art, I have travelled across Europe many times to see some of the great works, as well as a visit to New York to go to the Met. And any visit to London here at home isn’t complete without a mooch around a gallery.

Due to the IT work I used to do, I have lived in numerous parts of both England and Wales and have managed to live in houses (and a converted oast house with the roundels on top) from the 16th, 17th, and 19th centuries. I have yet to manage the 18th century, but never say never! I do love old houses, there is nothing better than walls that aren’t straight, wonky floorboards and beams.

Because of my fascination in both history and old buildings, I spend quite a lot of my spare time visiting local historic attractions. We are very lucky in my home county to have many monastic and castle ruins which are so atmospheric and perfect to wander around whilst making up stories of what happened there hundreds of years ago. We also have a castle (a complete one!) built by William the Conqueror nearly 1000 years ago. And every village here has a church which is great to wander around, together with some very old gravestones which make intriguing reading. And no day out in Norfolk would be the same without a visit to the beach which isn’t far from home – it’s often too cold for a paddle here, but never too cold for ice cream! We have a very sweet elderly miniature schnauzer called Fred who also enjoys a trip to the seaside.

I love lots of wildlife, especially otters, and I have a great desire to see one in the wild. To this end, we have camped (thankfully we also enjoy camping) in some pretty remote parts of the UK where they are likely to be, but sadly I’ve never seen one. These days as they become less endangered, they are even in the rivers closer to home so I need to do some more stalking! I am always on the lookout for owls too, I can often hear them in the woods near to where I live but they are very difficult to spot…

And what do I do when the English weather sends me inside? I enjoy baking cakes, and luckily, I have a family who likes eating them. I am pretty rubbish at any other kind of cooking though, my husband and children know to expect dinner to be partially cremated! I play the saxophone (badly!) however I try not to do that too often because it probably annoys the neighbours; but my sax is one of my most prized possessions, it’s great for relaxing if the writing has come to a standstill. 


 

Clare Marchant

Growing up in Surrey, Clare always dreamed of being a writer. Instead, she followed a career in IT, before moving to Norfolk for a quieter life and re-training as a jeweller.

Now writing full time, she lives with her husband and the youngest two of her six children. Weekends are spent exploring local castles and monastic ruins, or visiting the nearby coast.

 Social Media Links

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Wednesday, August 18, 2021

Spotlight on Anna Belfrage, author of The Whirlpools of Time

He hoped for a wife. He found a companion through time and beyond.

It is 1715 and for Duncan Melville something fundamental is missing from his life. Despite a flourishing legal practice and several close friends, he is lonely, even more so after the recent death of his father. He needs a wife—a companion through life, someone to hold and be held by. What he wasnt expecting was to be torn away from everything he knew and find said woman in 2016…

Erin Barnes has a lot of stuff going on in her life. She doesnt need the additional twist of a stranger in weird outdated clothes, but when he risks his life to save hers, she feels obligated to return the favour. Besides, whoever Duncan may be, she cant exactly deny the immediate attraction.

The complications in Erins life explode. Events are set in motion and to Erins horror she and Duncan are thrown back to 1715. Not only does Erin have to cope with a different and intimidating world, soon enough she and Duncan are embroiled in a dangerous quest for Duncans uncle, a quest that may very well cost them their lives as they travel through a Scotland poised on the brink of rebellion. 

Will they find Duncans uncle in time? And is the door to the future permanently closed, or will Erin find a way back?

Trigger Warnings: Sexual Content. Violence.


 Buy Links:

 Universal Link

Available on #KindleUnlimited

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Anna Belfrage

Fun Facts

(Stuff you may or may not already know!)


I am an earthquake survivor. We were living in Peru at the time and I was at home with my mother and baby sister when suddenly everything began to shake. I remember how my mother grabbed hold of me and more or less threw me down the stairs, screaming at me to run outside. The floor tilted this way and that, windows burst apart in showers of glass as the frames bent and broke, but somehow we made it outside. The ground quieted. There were huge cracks in the road, and the house looked sort of awry. This is when the phone began to ring and my mother handed me my sister and told me to hold her and rushed back inside to answer. Seconds later, the second wave struck…

 

I am happy to report we all survived, but to this day it takes only the slightest of tremors for me to be wide awake and on my way towards the door.



1755 Lisbon earthquake

 

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I dreamed of being a Navy SEAL – well, the Swedish equivalent. I spent hours practising my underwater swimming, how to surface without leaving bubbles. It irked me immensely that my younger sister was a better swimmer than me, but at least I was much stronger and braver. Of course I was: I was the oldest, the one who always defended her. Anyway: for years, I expended ridiculous amounts of hours on improving my physique until the day when I shared my dream with my father.

 

He looked rather taken aback. “A SEAL?”

 

“Yup. Or an explorer.”

 

“Hmm,” he said. He cleared his throat. “Women aren’t allowed to become SEALs,” he said. It was the first time—but not the last—I crashed into the glass ceiling. But hey, at least I’m a strong swimmer.

 

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Show me a dog and I can probably tell you the breed—even the more obscure ones. Why? Well, I’ve done a stint or two as ring secretary on various dog shows. It was quite exhausting, because the secretary is in charge of organising the contestants, and many dogs just don’t like being organised. And if the owner is inexperienced—in Sweden we rarely use professional handlers except for the really, really big events—they don’t much like being organised either. Or being told their dog doesn’t quite have it to become Best of Breed.

 


Asterix

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I was once offered a place in Venezuela’s national softball team. I was thrilled. But it all came with a caveat: I had to become a Venezuelan citizen.

 

“Forget it,” my father said. “No way is my daughter changing her citizenship.”

 

And there went my only shot at an athletic career. Today, I am very happy my father refused. Over the last few decades, Venezuela has slowly but safely gone to the dogs.

 

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I am fluent in three languages. Swedish is my cradle tongue, Spanish is the language I write poetry in and English is the language I prefer to read and write in. 

 

“But you’re Swedish! You should write in your own language.”

 

Except that English and Spanish are as much my own language as Swedish—that’s what happens when you grow up abroad. Now and then, though, I try to write in Swedish. It seems sort of silly to be writing a book about Queen Kristina of Sweden set in Sweden in English, but no matter how I try, the end result is flat and boring. Very weird, right?

 

 

 Anna Belfrage

Had Anna been allowed to choose, she’d have become a time-traveller. As this was impossible, she became a financial professional with two absorbing interests: history and writing. Anna has authored the acclaimed time-travelling series The Graham Saga, set in 17th century Scotland and Maryland, as well as the equally acclaimed medieval series The King’s Greatest Enemy which is set in 14th century England. 

Anna has also published The Wanderer, a fast-paced contemporary romantic suspense trilogy with paranormal and time-slip ingredients. Her September 2020 release, His Castilian Hawk, has her returning to medieval times. Set against the complications of Edward I’s invasion of Wales, His Castilian Hawk is a story of loyalty, integrity—and love. Her most recent release, The Whirlpools of Time, is a time travel romance set against the backdrop of brewing rebellion in the Scottish highlands.

All of Anna’s books have been awarded the IndieBRAG Medallion, she has several Historical Novel Society Editor’s Choices, and one of her books won the HNS Indie Award in 2015. She is also the proud recipient of various Reader’s Favorite medals as well as having won various Gold, Silver, and Bronze Coffee Pot Book Club awards.

Find out more about Anna, her books, and her eclectic historical blog on her website, www.annabelfrage.com .

 Social Media Links 

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Monday, August 16, 2021

Spotlight on Dominic Fielder, author of The Queen of the Citadels (The King’s Germans, Book 3)

 

October 1793: The French border.

Dunkirk was a disaster for the Duke of York’s army. The French, sensing victory before the winter, launch attacks along the length of the border. Menen is captured and the French now hold the whip hand. Nieuport and Ostend are threatened, and Sebastian Krombach finds himself involved in a desperate plan to stop the Black Lions as they spearhead the French advance. Werner Brandt and the men of 2nd Battalion race to Menen to counterattack and rescue Erich von Bomm and the Grenadiers, whilst von Bomm struggles to save himself from his infatuation with a mysterious French vivandière.

Meanwhile, dark and brooding, the citadel of Lille dominates the border. The Queen of the Citadels have never been captured by force. The allies must now keep Menen, which guards Flanders, and seize Lille to open the road to Paris. All of this must be done under the watchful eyes of a spy in the Austrian camp. Juliette of Marboré is fighting her own secret war to free Julian Beauvais, languishing in the Conciergerie prison, and waiting for his appointment with the guillotine, as the Terror rages in Paris.

 


Buy Links

  Amazon UK   Amazon US   Amazon CA   Amazon AU

 Available on Kindle Unlimited.

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Dominic Fielder

 
Fun Facts
(Stuff you may or may not already know!)

I once played rugby with £50,000 in cash! I knew my career in banking would be a struggle, counting other people’s money was never much fun. When I had made it to the dizzying heights of a ‘cashpoint clerk’ involved with loading the cashpoint machine of the weekend, one of the regular tasks was to double-check the pre-sealed banknotes, before the cash hoppers were loaded. I’m not sure how the rugby match started but £50000, which was a cuboid about 8 inches by 8 inches and about two feet long, was soon being tossed around the back room of the bank. There were only two problems with this.

One: I had already signed for the money so at this point, I am solely and wholly responsible for its safekeeping.

Two: it was my lateral pass that ended up wedged in the bank manager’s midriff. I can’t begin to tell you of the coals I was hauled over.

I can look back at it now and laugh…I hope!

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Before the rugby incident, I had been given a new leather bag, a single zip style affair, enough to hold some sandwiches and make me feel vaguely important. At the end of each day, the staff would trudge wearily from work, up the hill towards their cars. On this day, I’d left earlier than most and was so pleased that my colleagues thought so much of me as they waved vigorously as I drove past, radio blasting, sunglasses on…the epitome of cool.

The next day, when I arrived for work, the epitome of cool was faced with my leather case, looking a bit battered at the edges and slightly down at heel. I had driven past my colleagues with my shiny case on the roof of my car. After that, and several other incidents, I was transferred to another branch, and eventually another career.

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I once got stuck in a lift with a Vulcan. My other career took me to some very strange places. Being involved in the world of selling comics was a bit of an unusual sidestep and one of the offshoots of that was selling various wares at Star Trek conventions. At one of our first convention forays, I wheeled a truck full of stock into the lift. Just as I was about to press the ‘close door’ button, a yellow Next Generation uniform-wearing Trek fan sidled in. That was fine with me, we were headed in the same direction after all. He pressed the button for the floor of the convention centre and after various clunking noises, the lift started to rise. About three floors from our destination, it came to a sudden halt. This soon became a prolonged halt and then it was pretty obvious that we were stuck.

Not wanting to appear too worried about the situation, I made some small talk about the unusual badge that my Vulcan companion was wearing, a sort of Next Generation/Romulan fusion. He began with the words, “I am from the future…” We were stuck in the lift for around half an hour whilst the problem was resolved. It is still the longest half an hour of my life.

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We once took a family coach holiday to Paris, Brussels, and Amsterdam. It was my mum and dad, my uncle, my two brothers, aged 12 and 7 and me, 17 and vaguely awkward. I’d yet to become the epitome of cool, with the leather case. One of the ‘lowlights’ of the tour was a visit to the Amsterdam Red Light District. Therapy and time have blocked out most of that amble but its fair to say, that for a 17-year-old male surrounded by the coach-going punters, mostly septuagenarian and octogenarian women, it was the longest half an hour of my life, until the Vulcan and the lift. Eternity may look a little like a broken lift, filled with coach travelling women from the Next Generation/Romulan alternate universe. But I’m hoping that it doesn’t.

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I once found a cow’s leg on a kitchen table. I say found, I opened the door and there it was…the hind leg of a cow, slowly being turned into very thick steaks. Some scene-setting may be needed. Between the terminal career in banking and the world of Star Trek conventions, I spent a year working in Australia. One of those jobs was on a fruit farm. There are too many fruit farm stories to tell but to give you a flavour of the place, we worked in the fields twelve hours a day picking capsicums (peppers). These were put into a boom on either side of a tractor and packed by a crew on the tractor. At the back of the tractor was a small first aid box. The first aid box contained nothing medical at all. It did however always contain four beers in ice. The logic was simple. The farm was in the Northern Territories where ten of Australia’s deadliest snake species are found. Occasionally snakes will coil up in a capsicum plant and bask. Disturbing one isn’t a great idea. Some venoms are so deadly that without the correct anti-venom you might be dead within half an hour. The hospital was an hour’s drive away. Farm logic was that it was best to have a cold beer whilst you waited for the inevitable.

Back to the cow’s leg…the farm also grew melons, and the smell of these ripening was some sort of aphrodisiac to the cattle on the neighbouring farm. One day, three cattle broke through the fence, and after efforts to shoo them back failed, one of the farmhands shot them, to protect thousands of dollars of crops. For the next three days, all we smelled whilst we worked were rotting carcasses.

It was pretty grim!

But the one positive was that we were involved in eating some of the evidence!

After a very long shift, we arrived back to the communal kitchen shed to find a Filipino cook calmly slicing the largest steaks I have ever seen (and am ever likely to see) from a cow’s leg with hoof and fur still very much attached. Of course, at that point, I have no concept of the need to hang meat to let it cure. When it finally cooked it was the rubberiest meat I have ever eaten. It was the longest half hour of steak sandwich of my life, but with a cold beer in hand, there are worse ways of ending the working day!

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Dominic Fielder

Dominic Fielder has had careers in retail and the private education sector and is currently working as a secondary school Maths teacher. He has a First-class honours degree in history and a lifetime’s interest in the hobby of wargaming. The King's Germans series is a project that grew out of this passion He currently juggles writing and research around a crowded work and family life.

Whilst self-published he is very grateful for an excellent support team. The Black Lions of Flanders (set in 1793) is the first in the King's Germans' series, which will follow an array of characters through to the final book in Waterloo. He lives just outside of Tavistock on the edge of Dartmoor. where he enjoys walking on the moors and the occasional horse-riding excursion as both writing inspiration and relaxation.

 Social Media Links

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Monday, August 9, 2021

Spotlight on Thaddeus Thomas, author of Steampunk Cleopatra

 


Amani, a companion of Cleopatra, seeks to rediscover Egypt's suppressed science and history. She is the beloved of her princess become queen, but that may not be enough to overcome the system they've inherited. If she fails, her country and Cleopatra, both, could fall. History meets fantasy, and together, they create something new. Experience an intelligent thriller about star-crossed lovers and an ancient science that might have been.

 

 Buy Links:

 Available on KindleUnlimited.

 Amazon UK   Amazon US    Amazon CA   Amazon AU

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Thaddeus Thomas

Fun Facts

Stuff you may or may not already know!

Although I am now a left-leaning progressive, I was for many years a conservative pastor, and I think this gives me a certain resonance with these times. Although my work has been called cerebral, I believe in writing from the heart and gut, and fantastic explorations of a time two thousand years past is still very much about who we are now, both individually and as a society. I realize though, that my view is limited and filtered through those limitations. Instead of falling silent or writing stories that belong to someone else, I seek to embrace my limitations and make them part of my work. The main character of Steampunk Cleopatra is Cleopatra's childhood companion, a Black Egyptian of Nubian descent, but the point of view character is their tutor. A major theme of the book is his failing desire to chronicle her life for her family. He falls short, recreating a version of her as filtered through him. There is little more truth in what he writes than in the official histories dynasties use to manipulate and control their people.

Speaking of my pastoral background, I released Steampunk Cleopatra first, but before that, I wrote a political thriller set in first-century Palestine. Detective, 26 AD has recently been released, and it sees Doubting Thomas unwillingly serving as an investigator for Pontius Pilate in the court of Herod Antipas.

During the day, I work with people who have developmental disabilities, and early in my career, I worked with emotionally disturbed teenagers. When I first began my studies in Psychology, I thought the degree would help me understand my characters better, and for many years, I found myself disappointed. Over time, through psychological and philosophical studies, I have developed a theory for understanding the self and applying that to our fiction. My book on that subject, A Fiction Writer's Guide to Deeper Stories, should be out in a few months. Those who get to it soon enough can secure a free copy. 

If you want to make sure you don't miss it, subscribe to my newsletter at ThaddeusThomas.com. Subscribers receive a free copy of Haints, my collection of short stories.

Speaking of the newsletter, my fourth fun fact is the book club I run through the same site, and in July we will begin discussing our very first book, Last Memoria by Rachel Emma Shaw. The link to the discussion server can be found at Club.ThaddeusThomas.com/hub. The club is a wonderful way to discover new authors across an array of genres and literary tastes.

My final fun fact is that my entry point into fantasy is my fascination with the surreal work of artists and filmmakers like Salvador Dali and David Lynch. Fantasy always has the capacity to speak to us about ourselves and our world, and the surrealists attempt to speak to something hidden within us, through images that have become symbols by being ripped from their context. There are logical historical reasons to support a steampunk fantasy in Cleopatra's Egypt, but these are only justifications. I am drawn to the juxtaposition of ideas because they are bizarrely out of context, and through that disassociation from the expected, they take on new meanings and new possibilities.

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 Author Bio:

Thaddeus Thomas lives on the Mississippi River with his wife and three cats. Steampunk Cleopatra is his first novel, but he has a short story collection available at his website, ThaddeusThomas.com. There he also runs a book club where readers can receive indie book reviews and recommendations. His second book—Detective, 26 AD—releases July 9th and follows Doubting Thomas as he is conscripted to be an investigator for Pontius Pilate.

 Social Media Links:

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